Senior meals possibly contaminated in Plymouth and Kingston

A precautionary food recall forced a change in the lunch menu for nearly 200 Plymouth and Kingston senior citizens Wednesday.

Rich Harbert

A precautionary food recall forced a change in the lunch menu for nearly 200 Plymouth and Kingston senior citizens Wednesday.

Nearly 50 seniors who signed up to have the turkey dinner at the Council on Aging at Cordage Park ate cheese pizza instead.

But at least 15 of the 130 other seniors who had the turkey dinners delivered at home consumed them without apparent ill affects. Council on Aging staff contacted most of the home delivery recipients immediately after learning about possible problems with the meal late Wednesday morning and warned them not to eat the lunch, Plymouth Council on Aging Director Kim Manion said. Many were contacted before the lunches even arrived, she said.

About 100 Plymouth residents and 30 Kingston residents have the lunches delivered to their homes. Another 30 to 75 seniors eat at the Plymouth Council on Aging every weekday.

A spokesman for the Kingston Council on Aging said all local residents on the program were contacted and notified about the problem as soon as officials learned of the problem.

Manion said seniors who consumed Wednesday’s lunch before getting the warning were advised to call their primary care physician if they felt ill. None reported health problems by mid-afternoon.

Manion said the Council on Aging was warned not to eat Wednesday’s lunch by officials at the Old Colony Elder Services in Brockton, which administers the senior lunch program for 23 area cities and towns. Old Colony Elder Services is one of five elder service agencies that contracts with Canton-based Bateman Catering for the meals.

Diana DiGiorgi, executive director of Old Colony Elder Services, said the state Elder Services Department issued the recall warning late Wednesday morning after officials from Coastline Elder Services in New Bedford reported the lunch didn’t look right and had an odd smell.

DiGiorgi said the food had not yet been tested for quality and that it was possible the lunches were fine.

Manion said Wednesday was the first recall of Bateman meals but not the first problem she has had with the caterer. Manion said seniors have complained about the quality of the food in the past. There have also been problems with the amount of food delivered. In some cases, the Council of Aging has had to supplement their meals with orders to local restaurants because not enough lunches were delivered.

Manion said the.Council on Aging is hoping to find a new food provider when the contract expires next month. DiGiorgi said the Old Colony Elder Services is in the midst of considering bids for a new contract and is evaluating proposals from other caterers as well. Bateman provides 1,000 meals to the Old Colony Elder Services daily.

DiGiorgi said seniors who get meals at home are given emergency meals to store at home in case of such problems.

The Plymouth Council on Aging ordered cheese pizzas for the 49 seniors awaiting lunch at Cordage Park Wednesday. There was enough pizza for seconds, but some complained that the choice of pizza was not an especially healthy choice for diabetics.

Some also complained about the caterer’s failure to use refrigerated trucks to deliver the food daily, noting that the milk they get with lunch often tastes lukewarm..

Manion said the food temperature has never been an issue. The food is stored on ice while in transit and the temperature is checked when it arrives in the morning, she said. Meals that go to residents’ homes arrive and leave at 40-degrees Fahrenheit. Volunteers deliver the meals using 14 different routes in the two towns.

Some seniors commended Manion and her staff for responding so promptly to the warning. They noted how Manion arranged for buses to change their schedule to accommodate the later-than-normal lunch. “These things happen,” one woman said.

Market Place

Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted.
MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, MA ~ 33 New York Ave., Framingham, MA 01701 ~ Privacy Policy ~ Terms Of Service